Home Economics Story, The (Part I)

Four years in the lives of four home economics students at Iowa State University.

Shotlist

This idealized story of four years in the life of Kay, Jean, Helen, and Louise evokes the lost world of Iowa State's Home Economics Division in the fifties. When an assembly speaker at the high school talks of girls who studied home economics in college, Kay is smitten. But it is a big thing for someone in her family to attend college. She convinces her parents to make the sacrifice and is so eager to leave that she is packing her bags just minutes after receiving her acceptance letter. There is more than a hint here that she wants something more than her family or high school can ordinarily offer. "What is home economics?" the narrator asks, hinting at the field's complexity: it is an interdisciplinary field that unites the arts and
sciences with traditionally female activities, thus feminizing many otherwise neutral activities. In home economics, physics classes teach toaster-testing, and women chemists study the interaction of tomato soup and milk. Says the narrator: "All the classes seemed to fit together. Even the physics class was what a girl would like. It was about physics in the home. This course helped you to understand just what makes things run. Then, in household equipment, you could study the practical side: the use of an appliance. In turn, there were courses in foods and nutrition where you learned the why as well as the how." As a discipline, home economics looks both forward and backward. Although it enables women to leave the home and play essential roles in institutions, corporations, and schools ("She could see herself at the center of a world made up of large ovens and mixers manned by professional cooks"), home economists' work, seen as "women's work," has not been valued as highly as less essential work that happens to be performed by men. Even the professionalization of the home economics sphere has not kept its activities from being taken for granted. Historically connected to social movements like progressivism, to the empowering of women and immigrants, and to activism in the service of public health, home economics has a socially active side as well. Although The Home Economics Story expresses all of these (except social activism), the film emphasizes over and over that, most important of all, the training enables women to take care of their families and children. "Each girl has been preparing for two careers. One her chosen specialty, the other is a
career in homemaking." The students are not allowed to forget that they will be women first and home economists second. Kay fantasizes herself as a wife putting her training into practice at home. And there is a pitch for a traditionally female focus on emotions and psychology rather than on the material world: "The girls learn a lot from the children of the nursery school . . . how habits and attitudes learned at this stage are so
important in later life. They learn how much depends on getting along with others . . . for, after all, we live in a world where people are more important than things."
The Home Economics Story is also a great evocation of fifties college life, rich in culture and prescribed rituals; interestingly enough, at least in the home ec division, it is a world made up almost exclusively of women. Although a few football players and a prom date or two come and go, these four girls and their classmates spend four years together; their last year they even live together in the Home Management house. Louise has "the most envied task"-taking care of a baby. This is a free space for women to learn
among themselves, single-sex education at its most rarefied-at least until Beth first sports her wedding ring.
Iowa State College's Film Production Unit made many films relating to home economics, including Yarn About a Kitchen (1955), a time-and-motion study of meal preparation, in which the woman's movements are marked by a three-dimensional trail of yarn throughout the kitchen. As a university production, The Home Economics Story is fascinating to watch and compare with other educational and sponsored films of its time. There are a number of technical glitches involving sound and picture, and I have a persistent feeling that the movie was handed off to different directors during its production. Nonetheless its fair-to-middling production values seem appropriate for a self-promotional and self-published film, and it reminds us how 16mm production enabled so many institutions to turn to film as a way of reaching the public with their stories.

DESCRIBES KAY'S EXPERIENCES AS SHE ENTERS HOME ECONOMICS PROGRAM AT IOWA STATE. PORTRAYS PRACTICAL TRAINING STUDENTS RECEIVE & SUGGESTS VARIETY OF CAREERS OPEN TO THEM. SHOWS ADVANTAGES OF TRAINING FOR FUTURE FAMILY LIFE & ENHANCED PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT.

Ken Smith sez: Mom and Dad have an important decision to make. Would it be "worth the sacrifice" to send their daughter Kay to college? You bet it would, the narrator explains, as Kay can prepare herself for a "wonderful future" in home economics. Career choices range from "tea-room manager" to "food buymanship," and courses include "Physics" (with a toaster and electric mixer as lab equipment) and "Applied Chemistry" (where the girls learn the proper way to make Cream of Tomato soup). Kay no doubt found herself a good husband after graduation.
Probably inspired by Footsteps To The Future, "a recruiting film designed to interest the high school girl and her parents in the study of home economics at the university level, both as a preparation for successful homemaking and for a career," produced in early 1948 by the Iowa State Department of Photography for its School of Home Economics.
Shot list:

06:01:48:23
Camera pans around library full of students
MCU Kay daydreaming at a desk of 3 girls
MCU Alice (in glasses) reading
CU Kay daydreaming
Students collect books and get up when bell rings
Only girls file into room and sit down (MCU)
MCU At lectern, man and then woman who begins to speak about what girls can do after high school

06:03:33:26
MCU Tearoom and waitress serving; MCU cafeteria line, women in white uniforms serving food.
"Now she is a tearoom manager, and the thousands of people who eat out daily are her customers"

06:03:56:22
"She could see herself at the center of a world
made up of large ovens and mixers..."

06:15:03:26
Shot of football stadium crowd in bleachers
CU head and shoulders of majorette
MLS Band on football field
MCU male & female cheerleaders
MCU football player catching ball

06:15:38:27
MCU kids at coffee shop
MCU girls in dorm room for gab session
VS/CU individual girls
"I don't know yet if I want to work for a household appliance company or whether to go on with my art work..."

06:22:26:17
Kay & 3 friends walk from school building towards camera
Kay and others sitting around couch with advisor
MCU girl entering with basket of food into kitchen
MCU girl arranging flowers in basket
MCU girl putting laundry in old fashioned washer
MCU girl playing with baby
VS girls in home, Beth walks in with a wrapped present (box of chocolates) she accepts it in surprise
CU Kay looks at Beth's engagement ring

06:24:28:25
MCU Kay at placement office, Various girls in office
CU of hand in graduate's robe receiving diploma, hand with red nail polish
VS Kay and parents posing for graduation pictures
MLS girls at train station with suitcases
THE END

Another shot list:

12:14:16:00
group of teens studying in high school study hall, boy walks through room carrying book, camera moves, begins to focus on three sitting at table.

12:14:44:00
MCU girl studying, wearing glasses, she looks up.

12:14:48:00
teens sitting, boy walks in from left, sits down at table, pokes girl in hair before doing so.

12:21:31:00
MS girl, woman, man sitting down; man looks at watch, stands up, followed by woman, girl. man, woman leave room, girl watches them leave, turns, bites finger nails, looks out window, sits down on bed, looks at woman's picture picking it up, CU of girl's face. another girl walks in door, they walk over to each other talking they sit down, two other girls walk into room, first girl taps on already open door, they all say hello to each other.

12:22:46:00
MLS three girls, two sitting at table, other sitting on cement wall behind them. fourth girl walks into picture carrying tray with drinks they each take one.

12:22:55:00
LS water pool with spray in center, tall clock tower in BG. girls walk over to pool, sit on edge.

12:23:03:00
four girls walking down sidewalk, backs faced to camera.

12:23:10:00
MS three girls sitting on edge of water pool sticking hands in water center girl throughs coin in water.

12:23:18:00
College students dancing

12:23:26:00
girls walking up stairs in front of college building (Home Economics Hall at ISU)

12:23:37:00
people walking into building

12:23:43:00
girls standing at top of staircase, holding books looking to left, girl in front waves hand, another runs up stairs to catch up with them.

12:23:46:00
girl working on art project, camera pans to another girl also working on art project.

12:24:35:00
woman standing at blackboard, pointing at text written on board, she is teaching class, turns picking up glass.

12:24:43:00
water, girl swimming

12:24:46:00
people squaredancing

12:24:49:00
girls bowling

12:24:52:00
girls playing basketball

12:24:54:00
girl playing badminton

12:24:56:00
girls playing golf

12:24:58:00
girls playing volleyball

12:25:01:00
girls playing tennis

12:25:04:00
girl playing archery

12:25:07:00
girls learning ballet (modern dance)

12:25:19:00
girl sitting on bed, another on floor, they are wearing night clothes looking at book

12:25:26:00
MCU girl sitting on floor, pans down side of bed, CU of bed spread color pattern it dissolves into different pattern (showing passage of one year's time) panning up to girl making bed, another girl comes in behind her, they hug then sit on bed, two other girls walk into picture carrying books, one girl drops book on floor.

12:25:59:00
CU book on floor, girl sitting on bed picks up book

12:26:09:00
MCU girl sitting on bed

12:26:11:00
profile shot girl standing

12:26:21:00
birds-eye view girls cooking, pouring contents of one pot into another
(Narrator discusses chemistry for women as being concerned with cooking and mixtures)

12:26:26:00
CU of pot's contents, spoon held over pot, stirring it often.

12:33:43:00
five girls in kitchen, three sitting, two standing with aprons on, woman walks into picture from left

12:33:51:00
girl sitting at table looking at books, examing fabric, there are designs along with finished outfits in BG

12:33:57:00
girl, woman weighing things on scale

12:34:11:00
girl working with house hold equipment, walks over to oven placing some thing in it.

12:34:21:00
building that reads "Home Economics", CU

12:34:30:00
MCU, VS girls standing in front of Home Ec building

12:34:53:00
LS, four girls walking on side walk away from building, toward camera

12:35:07:00
woman sitting on sofa surrounded by six girls

12:35:24:00
girl walks through door on right carrying basket full of food, sets it down, opens cupboard door, takes off gloves, girl walks in from left, other girl hands her list, she looks at it, picks up one item.

12:35:38:00
girl arranging flowers on table in dinning room, another girl comes in setting down plates

12:35:50:00
MS girl loading washing machine

12:36:00:00
girl on floor with baby

12:36:06:00
woman sitting on sofa surrounded by six girls

12:36:15:00
woman sitting on chair looking at book, girl standing over her looking at it also, girl walks in holding gift behind her back

12:36:28:00
MS woman sitting in green chair, smiling

12:36:31:00
MS girl sitting in chair, stands up grabing hand of already standing girl, pulling her to sit down

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Reviews

Learning about the home is very important in the 1950's.
The girls and college administraters are very busy seeing to those teachings. Learning how to use and enjoy a home at the most economical effort. Building adult relationships as well as knowledge is important. Just because the girls leave home and go to college for HE in the 1950's means a sacrifice for their parents. This is an excellent film. It shows a teenager about college, and family.

A high school girls interest in home economics becomes a way for her to legitimize her desire to attend college. Its easy to ridicule these films, but underneath all their corny imagery we can see how hard it was for girls to have any real educational opportunities after high school. At the time this film was made, many parents didnt see the need for their daughters to attend college. Would Kay, the girl in this film, be allowed to go to college at all if she wasnt majoring in Home Economics? Probably not. I particularly liked the scenes with Kay and her parents poring over the college application. Kay could be the first in her family to go to college and the voice-over reminds us, College for Kay would mean sacrifices for Mom and Dad. Would it be worth the sacrifice? When Kays college acceptance letter comes in the mail, her mother, humbly wiping her hands on her apron, is standing at her side. Kay has an chance for a larger life that her mother was denied.

Very whopper laden tale of four girls taking HoemEconomics at college. If you thought HE was just textiles and food, well you're WRONG1 It also includes Physics! and Chemistry1 The narrator is quick to point our however, that all of this can be tied in with house work.As a matter of fact, some people take the HE courses in college for a career as being a house wife! Oh brother. Very strange, badly edited and highly reccomended!

I have a special affection for this film, meant to encourage 40's teenage girls to study home economics at Iowa State College. Since it's for both the girls and their parents, it tries to make college life look like a swell time while reassuring the parents that it will properly train their daughters to assume their proper roles as wives and mothers. There's a large implication that convincing parents to spend money on college for girls will be a tough sell. They don't make 'em like this anymore (thank goodness!).
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****. Also available on Mystery Science Theater 3000, Epsode #317: Viking Women vs. the Sea Serpent.